Back in the 1970s, Seal Beach dentist and restaurateur Walter Babcock purchased 110 acres of rocky, rolling land on Highway 246 between Buellton and Lompoc.

At the time, neither he nor anybody else was thinking about the area as a likely spot for world-class wine. The only decent grapes in the vicinity came from the Sanford & Benedict vineyard, planted in 1971.

Most wine experts considered the east-west valley northwest of Santa Barbara too cold and windy for grapes. Ocean air pours in daily, often pushing billows of fog toward Buellton.

But Babcock was determined to plant grapes. Wine was one of his many interests, and his restaurant, Walt's Wharf, was already offering a decent wine list. (That popular downtown Seal Beach eatery was born because of yet another hobby: Babcock had developed a passion for fishing and needed a place where his seafood was the main dish.)

"The first thing he did was plant 20 acres," Walter's son Bryan said. "He planted grapes that were popular in that era: gewürztraminer, riesling, sauvignon blanc and chardonnay."

At the time, Bryan was a typical California kid on the verge of adulthood. "I was a sophomore at Occidental College. I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my career and my life. I thought I might go on and get an MBA, but I wasn't sure."

A few years later, Stanford, Harvard and other prestigious universities helped Bryan refine his career choices. "They all looked at my application and tossed it. I didn't get into any MBA program I tried out for." He decided to enroll in a masters program in food sciences and enology at UC Davis instead.

In the meantime, his dad's vineyard was flourishing. Other winemakers who bought Walter's grapes were impressed with the results. "The first wines that came off the vineyard in '82 and '83 were promising," Babcock said. "The gewürztraminer was good, the acids were good, the riesling was fantastic."

In 1984, Bryan was scheduled to return to UC Davis to finish his thesis. "I started crushing grapes here instead," he said, gesturing to the undulating landscape around him, now covered with vineyards. "My dad purchased a small crusher and a presser and some barrels, and we started making wine together. I forgot about school. I've been making wine ever since."

Babcock Winery is one of a handful of pioneering wine producers that transformed the Santa Rita Hills from a windy backwater into one of the nation's most renowned regions for pinot noir. Bounded by the Purisima Hills on the north and the Santa Rosa Hills on the south, the little valley and surrounding foothills produce excellent chardonnay as well.

Bryan and several colleagues successfully lobbied to establish an appellation for their region. The 100-square-mile Santa Rita Hills American Viticultural Area was certified in 2001.

Bryan's talents were evident from the beginning. His first harvest landed him gold medals at the L.A. County and Orange County fairs for his 1984 Estate Grown Sauvignon Blanc. He has since won many winemaking honors. One of the most prestigious was his inclusion in the James Beard Foundation's "Top Ten Small-Production Winemakers in the World" list in 1995.

As we sipped samples of Babcock's best pinot noirs from its Terroire Extraordinaire line in the tasting room, Bryan talked about his plans.

"We could make more wine than we do now. I'm at about 10,000 cases (per year), and I could knock out 50,000 or 60,000. But in the last five years I've been concerned with making less wine and better wine."

Pinot noir is Babcock's biggest seller by far. He agrees with the assessment of others that this valley is a magic region for the finicky French grape.

"Pinot grapes from this area, especially the western side (of the valley), produce wine that's very dark, very extracted; the yields are small. You get dark, boysenberry, underbrushy qualities, almost garrigue" (notes of juniper, thyme, rosemary and lavender).

Back when he was schlepping fish and cleaning tables at his dad's restaurant, did Bryan ever dream he would end up being a renowned winemaker?

He laughed as he gazed at his glass of pinot noir. "Not in a million years."

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